Six-and-a-half weeks before she was due to deliver her first baby, Lynn Dasteel felt that something was very wrong. By the time she reached the hospital, she was 90% along into delivery, and she had not felt a single contraction. Her newborn had to spend a month in intensive care. Today, Alex Dasteel is 4 1/2 years old and healthy, but because he was born so early, his chances of severe mental retardation were great. Now Dasteel is pregnant with a second child.

Six-and-a-half weeks before she was due to deliver her first baby, Lynn Dasteel felt that something was very wrong. By the time she reached the hospital, she was 90% along into delivery, and she had not felt a single contraction. Her newborn had to spend a month in intensive care. Today, Alex Dasteel is 4 1/2 years old and healthy, but because he was born so early, his chances of severe mental retardation were great. Now Dasteel is pregnant with a second child.

A device manufactured by Tokos Medical Corp. to monitor pregnant women subject to early deliveries at home fails to prevent premature births, costs too much and should never have been approved for routine use, a group of five obstetricians contends. In a report published in today's New England Journal of Medicine, the doctors criticized the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approving the device in September, 1990, without proof that it actually lowers the risk of delivering too early.

A device widely used to monitor pregnant women at home fails to prevent premature delivery, costs too much and should never have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for routine use, a group of obstetricians argued last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The device, called the Genesis home uterine activity monitor, is intended to detect preterm labor early so it can be stopped.

A device widely used to monitor pregnant women at home fails to prevent premature delivery, costs too much and should never have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for routine use, a group of obstetricians argued last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The device, called the Genesis home uterine activity monitor, is intended to detect preterm labor early so it can be stopped.

Tokos Medical Corp. Tuesday concluded a $31.4-million acquisition of a small Atlanta-based firm that it hopes will be the first to win federal approval to market a uterine-monitoring device to detect pre-term labor. The completion of the merger with Physiologic Diagnostic Service, first announced in June, was delayed pending completion of a Federal Trade Commission review of the deal's antitrust implications. Tokos said the FTC completed its investigation Friday without taking any action.

Tokos Medical Corp.'s stock is up sharply after a University of Mississippi study endorsing the use of the company's home uterine monitors to delay premature births. Shares were up $1.125 to $8.125 on Wednesday in active trading on the NASDAQ system, after gaining 19% the day before. The study followed 17,186 pregnant women, who were at high risk of delivering prematurely, over a period of five years.

Your article "Home Uterine Monitors Give Birth to Debate" (Jan. 12) was an excellent testimony to the way that today's runaway technology is being thrust upon pregnant women without any proof of its benefits. In fact, as noted in the article, machines such as electronic fetal heart monitors used during labor are not only expensive but may lead to unnecessary, costly and potentially dangerous Cesarean deliveries. All of this wasted money would be much better spent on a national prenatal care system--something that women have access to in the many nations with far better infant mortality rates than the United States.

Tokos Medical Corp., which has seen its stock rise nearly 50% this week, announced Thursday that it lost $336,000 in the first quarter. News of the loss, which the company had earlier warned investors about, may have slowed the stock's rise. The medical device company's shares rose 12.5 cents Thursday, to close at $8.875. "The street was not dissuaded by the news" about earnings, said Tom Gavin, a Tokos spokesman.

A device manufactured by Tokos Medical Corp. to monitor pregnant women subject to early deliveries at home fails to prevent premature births, costs too much and should never have been approved for routine use, a group of five obstetricians contends. In a report published in today's New England Journal of Medicine, the doctors criticized the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approving the device in September, 1990, without proof that it actually lowers the risk of delivering too early.

Tokos Medical Corp. Tuesday concluded a $31.4-million acquisition of a small Atlanta-based firm that it hopes will be the first to win federal approval to market a uterine-monitoring device to detect pre-term labor. The completion of the merger with Physiologic Diagnostic Service, first announced in June, was delayed pending completion of a Federal Trade Commission review of the deal's antitrust implications. Tokos said the FTC completed its investigation Friday without taking any action.

Tokos Medical Corp. said it received federal approval Thursday to begin marketing a device for detecting pre-term labor in pregnant women with a history of premature births. The device, which is manufactured by Physiologic Diagnostic Service, a small Atlanta firm that Tokos acquired 10 days ago for $31.4 million, is the first of its kind in the nation to receive pre-marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Tokos Medical Corp. on Tuesday concluded a $31.4-million acquisition of a small Atlanta-based firm that it hopes will be the first to win federal approval to market a uterine monitoring device to detect pre-term labor. The completion of the merger with Physiologic Diagnostic Service, first announced in June, was delayed pending completion of a Federal Trade Commission review of the deal's antitrust implications.